In my headcanon, the most severe physical flaws of fluffies, particularly the infamous bowel issues, only occurred in fluffies from the time immediately after the PETA break-in to the beginning of their popularity.
Due to the odds-defying popularity of the unfinished My Fluffy Pony (now colloquially known as “fluffies”), Hasbio survived just barely.
After they got everything back in order, they decided to keep releasing fluffies as they are, satisfied with their customers’ reception despite the far-from-small backlash.
That is, until Mattel Bio unveiled their new biotoy product: the Fuzzy Pony.
Unlike fluffies, these new competitors were finished products, lacking the now infamous bowel issues and extreme fragility. They also did not have the color bias Hasbio installed into fluffies (originally meant to only be for the early breeding stages).
Hasbro noticed their loss of profits and, knowing they didn’t have any grounds to sue Mattel, ordered Hasbio to resume the interrupted work on the My Fluffy Pony and get rid of the most serious issues.
And so, the finished My Fluffy Pony was finally a reality.
They no longer defecated as if they had constant explosive diarrhea, their bones no longer broke with the lightest misstep, and they were no longer hard-wired to kill foals with dull colors.
They were still far from perfect, but the improvements made on them were enough to put them neck-and-neck with the Fuzzy Pony and return Hasbio’s profits.
This event became known as “The Great Fluffy Revamp”, or just “The Revamp” for short.
Fluffies are still quite fragile, just not to the extent that they’ll break their leg to the point of needing amputation if they trip while playing.
Though removed from official Hasbio releases and reputable independent breeders’ fluffies, color bias is still prevalent among badly bred fluffies, and inbred fluffies often display pre-revamp fragility and bowel issues.
Occasionally, pre-revamp fragility and bowel issues can occur in well-bred fluffies as a mutation, but these are treated as medical conditions.
Feral pre-revamp fluffies do exist, being the descendants of those that escaped during the break-in. They aren’t nearly as numerous as they were at the start, but some still beat the odds and survive.
Smarty Syndrome and Categorizational Ability Defiency (CAD) were not purposely eradicated during the revamp due to not being omnipresent like the fragility and bowel issues were. CAD in particular was not even known that well at the time. However, as a side effect of the removal of the color bias, CAD is completely absent in official Hasbio releases and reputable independent breeders’ fluffies. Smarty Syndrome is somewhat rarer but still occurs, especially in its acquired form.
It’d be interesting but I suppose the question would be, “how will the old interact with the new?” Are they genetically compatible? Will the new ponies now disregard or disdain their ancestors? Will the fluffies think (somehow) they’re the same?
They are genetically compatible due to being the same species, just with some improvements on the revamped fluffies. However, breeding pre-revamp fluffies is discouraged, and breeding them with revamped fluffies is even more so due to fears of contaminating their gene pool.
While they would still see each other as fluffies due to looking and acting the same, how they treat each other depends on the individual fluffies and their personalities.
Kinder revamped fluffies tend to feel sorry for their weaker predecessors and try to keep them safe, while haughtier revamped fluffies act rudely towards them, and full-blown smarties bully them.
Meanwhile, some pre-revamp fluffies are jealous and resentful of their newer kin, while others admire and look up to them.
As for abusers, most don’t take it too well, but eventually evolve their tactics to better torture these less brittle fluffies. Meanwhile, a select few start hunting around only for badly bred fluffies, while others are actually happy about the news since a more durable fluffy brings more challenge.
For pillow-lovers, it depends on the reason they like pillows. Those who were simply afraid of fluffies hurting themselves react positively, while those who liked pillows because they don’t want a pet that moves are unhappy with pillowing being less easy but aren’t upset enough to really make a fuss about it. (And this of course is only counting those living in areas where it’s legal.)
The color bias has always been invented for “Justified abuse” when fluffy was kicked off /mlp/ during the Scruffening and one anon kept making /b/ threads. Originally Hasbio fluffies were supposed to sell at any color, “Bad” colors could still cost a lot of money and a fluffy who saw another fluffy just saw another fluffy to be friends with. It’s humans who have the color bias post-breach when it became evident they could breed the fluffies quick. One of the core bits of hive that people forget a lot is that Hasbio’s a corporation who wants their best foot forward, if the public found out that fluffy ponies were racist from the start. It would have imploded the business before the PETA breach with the outrage that fluffies were taught to be practicing eugenics.
Not that any head canon is explicitly wrong but it’s one of the bits of hive canon that’s been corrupted through the years thanks to the abuse posters from /b/ thinking “Fluffy Racism” and “Poopie Martyr Babbeh” would make fluffies more hateable. Fluffies have flaws but if you outwardly say “They are racist towards bad colors” you make them the villains of your stories instantly and it made the booru nigh on unreadable for a while because it was just justice abuse after justice abuse for the “martyr poopie babbeh” who was forced to eat shit and it drove authors/artists away.
It’s not a bad idea, it’s just Fuzzies have been done since Fall Of Cleveland. You’d have to work extra hard to make them compelling.
In my headcanon, fluffies weren’t meant to have color bias permanently. It was a temporary (yet very foolish) addition meant to aid the process of breeding colorful fluffies. Due to the premature release, it wasn’t removed from official Hasbio fluffies until the revamp.
My version of fuzzies aren’t like the ones from the Cleveland 'verse other than the name and being similar to fluffies. I am definitely still working on them, though.
Fluffy limbs will no longer self-destruct upon interaction
Anyway, that is a good way to explain why there’s a bunch of different fluffy “artist breeds” who all have different levels of racism/shitting/imploding.
There’s something like this going on in my headcanon too, but with a couple of key differences: it’s not Hasbio doing it, and who is doing it is trying to improve fluffies, not outright replace them with fuzzies. Fuzzies were closer to hairy automatons than actual living, thinking, feeling creatures in my headcanon. There wasn’t ever a Death of Fuzzies, because fuzzies didn’t have anything to reap.